THE FAERY YEAR 



The Bed of the Swifts 



Throughout the summer the swifts hold their 

 evening parties, from May till they leave in August. 

 But in the latter part of July and in August more 

 gatherings and gambols are seen, for the precocious 

 young as well as the adults take part in them. Is 

 the young swift, like the young swallow, fed by its 

 parents on the wing ? It is possible that in that 

 fraction of a second, when two swifts appear to touch 

 each other in the air, a morsel of food passes, but I 

 cannot say whether this is so. Ordinarily, the swift, 

 alike at its fleetest and whilst easily sailing, makes 

 hardly any wing noise which can be heard at a 

 distance of, say, twenty yards. It is noiseless as the 

 owl. But now and then there is a loud swish from 

 the swift as if a fan were violently opened and ex- 

 posed to the wind. When the swift desires to stop 

 in his course and go off at a sudden tangent, he can 

 bring to bear a brake power of great force. The 

 wing, fully expanded and presented broadside against 

 the air, probably causes this fan-like sound. But it 

 is over so quickly that it is very difficult to make a 

 sure observation. 



Where do swifts sleep ? I feel sure that, one 

 and all, they sleep under the eaves of cottages and 

 houses and in the nooks about the church towers 

 where they nest. But the pretty theory that many 

 gather on a fine evening, and, sweeping upward, 

 spend the night in the sky, is favoured by some who 

 love to watch these evening parties full of wild frolic 

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